The problem with
seeing films after they have received their critical and award-season hype
comes mostly from the expectations held by audience members. This probably
explains a majority of the backlash against this season’s biggest winner thus
far, La La Land, and it definitely
affected the way I perceived Manchester
by the Sea. Even though I saw this film long before nominations began
coming out, there was something else that affected my perception of the film:
the marketing. Yes, I had expectations built up because of high critical praise
(award nominations had not yet been announced when I first watched the film),
but even more misleading was the trailers I had seen depicting a feel-good indi
film. I realize the marketing department did not want to spoil certain plot
developments (which I will also avoid in this review), but the trailer also
misleads audiences into thinking the tone of the film was far lighter than it
actually is.

What we know
from the trailer (and all I will divulge, for those yet to have seen the
movie), is that this is a movie about a loner named Lee Chandler (Casey
Affleck) who returns to his hometown to look after his teenage nephew, Patrick
(Lucas Hedges), after the sudden death of his brother (Kyle Chandler). The
trailer makes it clear that Lee prefers to move back to Boston with his nephew, where he makes a
meager living as a janitor, whereas the 16-year-old sex-obsessed Patrick
prefers to stay in his hometown. There are hints that Lee has a troubled past
involving his ex-wife (Michelle Williams) that he would rather avoid, but the
trailer mostly depicts comical bickering between nephew and uncle.

While the
trailer focuses on the slight humor in the well-written banter from Kenneth
Lonergan’s screenplay, it completely ignores the depressing tone a majority of
the film adopts and misleads the audiences into thinking this may be an
uplifting narrative. I felt good about nothing watching this film, which some
have even resorted to calling “grief porn.” That is not to say that it is a bad
film, but merely one that made me feel manipulated by the marketing department
in order to increase ticket sales.

Looking past the
misrepresentation of marketing, there is a great deal to praise within Lonergan’s
film. Although there are many commendable moments as director, Lonergan’s movie
excels because of the writing. The no-frills approach to dialogue feels honest
and raw, giving most of the actors endless opportunities to excel in their
craft. It is also a screenplay bold enough to refrain from typical resolution,
easy answers, or the desire to appease audiences. This can be frustrating, but
it also feels undeniably real, which I predict will result in an Oscar for
screenwriting.

Much of the
rawness comes from some of the performances. Casey Affleck is obviously at the
forefront of this as the mostly silent Lee, with a non-chronological narrative
to slowly reveal the reasons behind his reclusive behavior. Even though I was
able to anticipate where the film was going, I still found the approach to be
masterful. Unfortunately, rather than delving completely into the mindset of
Lee, much of the film is about the conflict of having someone like him forced
to be around someone like Patrick.

Both Lee and Patrick
are somewhat selfish in the way that they handle grief, though they each have
different approaches. Lee prefers silence and solitude, whereas Patrick is
mostly just concerned with having sex with two girlfriends (neither of which
know about each other), and being able to maintain those relationships after
the death of his father. I know that Lonergan’s ultimate effort was to depict
real behavior in the face of grief, but Patrick’s concern with having sex the
night of his father’s death is too unsympathetic to ignore. He then proceeds to
use his uncle as a wing man in order to have sex with his other girlfriend, all
while whining incessantly about not wanting to move to Boston. I realize that
Patrick is a 16-year-old boy, a naturally self-absorbed creature, but I found
him to be horrendously unsympathetic, regardless of his later scenes of
grief-stricken panic attacks.

Unfortunately,
it wasn’t just the portrayal of the character that I found obnoxious. Despite
an Academy Award nomination, I found Hedges to be rather unbearable in the
role. This may have been a directorial choice, but the teen rarely seemed to be
thinking about the lines being said to him as he recited the quick banter of
the dialogue. Hedges constantly steps on the lines delivered by Affleck in the
scenes of them arguing. This may have been a stylistic choice, but it never
appears as though Patrick is thinking about what is being said or what he is
saying in response. It feels like an actor who has memorized his lines really
well and knows how to respond without ever needing to hear what is being said.
Acting is also reacting, and Hedges does very little of this throughout the
film.

The reason that
I am guessing that the line stepping was a directorial choice is because of one
crucial scene between Affleck and Williams in which they do the same. The
difference in this scene shows why it doesn’t work with Hedges, both because of
the talent displayed by the actors and a logical explanation to give the speech
patterns context. The conversation between Lee and his ex-wife is obviously one
that each has thought about for many years, and so it is far easier to believe
that they are able to anticipate what the other is going to say even before the
sentence has completely left their mouth.

On top of that, Williams and Affleck
give two of the best performances of the year in this brief scene. There are
layers of emotions and dozens of micro-expressions in each delivery of their
lines, so that there is no question that they are reacting to what the other
person is saying. Never once in this scene did I question whether the
characters were thinking about what they were saying, or feel like they were
just reciting lines. Williams and Affleck embodied these roles and there is an
ocean-sized depth of emotion beneath the mere words spoken. This is what screen
acting should look like, and it made me wish more of the film was focused on
these characters rather than the unsavory and selfish sex life of a teenage
boy. There would be no film without Patrick, but ironically, I would have loved
this film if it weren’t for Patrick.

The Blu-ray
release of Manchester
by the Sea also comes with a DVD and a Digital HD copy of the film, so that
there are multiple ways to dwell in the grief. The special features on the disc
are far less impressive, though at least there is a focus on quality over
quantity. There is a commentary track with Lonergan, oddly listed as a
conversation with the filmmaker. There is also a making-of featurette, but it
is a generic promotional tool rather than anything in-depth. The last of the
special features are a couple of deleted scenes, making up just over five
minutes of actual content.